Method and system for determining a potential relationship between entities and relevance thereof

ABSTRACT

A method and system for identifying a relevance of a relation between at least two entities includes receiving at least one item of information relating to one or more of the entities and determining whether a proximity between the at least two entities exists. A level of the proximity between the entities is identified. The relevance of the proximity between the entities is determined based on the level of the proximity and the at least one item of information received.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a Continuation-in-Part of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 11/433,413, filed May 12, 2006, and entitled, An InfectiousDisease Representation, Surveillance and Analysis Data Processing SystemIncluding a Visualization System Therefore, the entire disclosure ofwhich is incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND

The present disclosure relates generally to a method and system fordetermining whether a relationship may exist between two entities andmore particularly to such a method and system where once a relationshipis established the relevancy of the relationship can be addressed for anumber of reasons.

BRIEF SUMMARY

A method and system for determining the possible relation between atleast two entities is disclosed. In an embodiment, one or more items ofinformation with regard to the at least two entities is gathered. Basedon the items of information, a determination is made with regard towhether the at least two entities have been in proximity to each otherand if so, the level of proximity. Once a level of proximity isdetermined, the relevancy of the level of proximity is determined.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The following detailed description will be better understood when readin conjunction with the appended drawings, in which there is shown oneor more of the multiple embodiments of the present disclosure. It shouldbe understood, however, that the various embodiments of the presentdisclosure are not limited to the precise arrangements andinstrumentalities shown in the drawings.

In the Drawings:

FIG. 1 is a use case diagram of an interaction tracking surveillancesystem in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a use case diagram of the proximity analysis system inaccordance with the embodiment of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing examples of proximities associatedwith the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an exemplary set of person-personinteractions between entities in accordance with the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an exemplary set of person-objectinteractions between entities in accordance with the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing another exemplary set of interactionsbetween entities in accordance with the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing exemplary bodily interaction betweenentities according to one embodiment of the preset disclosure;

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of same-time proximity betweenentities in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of elapsed-time proximity betweenentities and their locations in accordance with one embodiment of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of time-presence proximitybetween entities and their locations in accordance with one embodimentof the present disclosure;

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of location-specificdifferent-time proximity between entities and their respective locationsin accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 12 is a use case diagram of the relational visualization system inaccordance with the embodiment of FIG. 1;

FIG. 13 is an example of a virtual relationship display including asocial network visualization graph in accordance with the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 14 is an example of a virtual relationship display including aphysical region visualization display in accordance with the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 15 is a class diagram of the types of parameters that can be setwithin the system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 16 is a system diagram illustrating an example of identifyingrelated entities;

FIG. 17 is a network diagram of a relationship relevancy system inaccordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 18 is a block diagram of a computer system for realization of therelationship relevancy system of FIG. 17; and

FIG. 19 is a block diagram of a computer system for realization of therelationship relevancy system of FIG. 17.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Certain terminology is used herein for convenience only and is not to betaken as a limitation on the present disclosure. In the drawings, thesame reference letters are employed for designating the same elementsthroughout the several figures.

The words “right”, “left”, “lower” and “upper” designate directions inthe drawings to which reference is made. The words “inwardly” and“outwardly” refer to directions toward and away from, respectively, thegeometric center of the relationship relevancy system and designatedparts thereof. The terminology includes the words above specificallymentioned, derivatives thereof and words of similar import.

Unified Modeling Language (“UML”) can be used to model and/or describemethods and systems and provide the basis for better understanding theirfunctionality and internal operation as well as describing interfaceswith external components, systems and people using standardizednotation. When used herein, UML diagrams including, but not limited to,use case diagrams, class diagrams and activity diagrams, are meant toserve as an aid in describing the embodiments of the present disclosure,but do not constrain implementation thereof to any particular hardwareor software embodiments.

Briefly stated, the present disclosure generally relates to identifyingthe relevance of relations between entities, and to tracking and/orpredicting outcomes using data corresponding to relationships betweenentities. Thus, the multiple embodiments of the present disclosureinclude a method and system of monitoring and tracking location andmovement of entities, determination of relationships and/or interactionsbetween entities, and determining the relevance and the impact of thoserelationships. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to arelationship relevancy system and method that determines and tracks theposition of entities in or around the system and the time at which theentities are at that position.

Briefly, in use, one or more of the entities are selected and potentialrelationships with other entities are identified. Proximity datarelating to the identified relationships is synthesized to determineproximity level and/or an “intimacy score” (indicating the strength ofthe relationship based on a weighting of components of the proximity).Based on the proximity data and/or intimacy scores for the correspondingrelationship(s), the relevancy of such relationships is determined.

That is, relationships between and among the entities in the system areanalyzed and synthesized to determine their actual or potential currentor future impact on other entities in or around the system, projectedbehavior of entities, evaluation of behavior (e.g., crossing ofthresholds) of certain entities, and deviation of such behavior.Depending on determined relevancies and/or desired thresholds, an alertor the like may be triggered related to the relationships. Additionally,the proximity and relationship data can be visually presented, allowinga user interacting with the system to visualize the relationships andoptionally to edit the information displayed, or to otherwise adjust theconfiguration preferences, selected entities of interest, visually trackthe relevant information pertaining to the relationships and/or identifyadditional relationships.

For convenience, the multiple embodiments of the present method andsystem and examples with respect thereto are described herein generallywith reference to interactions related to medicine and/or that wouldtake place in medical settings, such as a hospital, doctor's office, alaboratory, etc., including, for example, examining the interactionsbetween people to identify the source of a disease outbreak or fordetermining whether transmission of a disease (e.g., bacteria or virusor hospital acquired infection (HAI)) has likely occurred to one or moreother entities based on interactions between one entity and othersubsequent and prior entities with whom that entity has been in contact.However, those skilled in the art will recognize that the multipleembodiments of the present disclosure are generally applicable to othertypes of interactions and settings relevant to tracking or monitoringthe relationship(s) between entities and/or the relevance thereof,including, for example, tracking interactions between guards and inmatesin a prison setting, tracking various objects to prevent theft ortampering of the objects, tracking soldiers on a battlefield, militarybase or foreign soil (e.g., when a soldier is absent or missing),monitoring the movement of transportation vehicles (e.g., aircraft,ships, automobiles, etc.) to prevent collisions and to detect deviationsfrom flight plans, monitoring animals on a farm or within a distributionsystem, monitoring consumer goods such as food and other products,monitoring presence or movement of entities on a university or collegecampus or cruise ship, monitoring consumer purchase and/or behavioractivities, guarding access to trade secrets, tracking and monitoringthe movement of weapons and munitions, tracking the movement ofrepairmen or entities who are visitors within a tracked system,monitoring the activities of employees, monitoring and tracking movementof emergency response personnel, monitoring movement of entities in lawenforcement settings generally (including, for example drug distributionand terrorism or terrorist cell activities), monitoring entities withina disaster area, tracking the online activities of a user, andpredicting behavior and detecting deviations from predicted behavior.

Referring to FIG. 17, a network diagram of a relationship relevancysystem 5 in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure isshown. As noted above, for purposes of describing herein the embodimentsof the present disclosure, the relationship relevancy system 5 of FIG.17 is described with reference to a hospital setting. The relationshiprelevancy system 5 may thus be employed by, be resident in or otherwisedetermine, track and/or monitor the location, movement, relationshipsand/or interactions of entities in a hospital such as people, equipment,rooms and the like as described in greater detail below. Therelationship relevancy system 5 may determine the relevancy of suchrelationships and/or interactions between those entities and the actualor predicted effect of those relationships (or movement of suchentities) on other entities in the hospital or on the hospital as awhole. The predicted deviation of behavior of entities in the hospitalcan also be determined.

Thus, if an infection outbreak occurs, for example, rather than provideantibiotics to or for everyone in the hospital and/or shut down andsanitize all rooms and equipment, only specific people need be givenantibiotics and specific rooms and specific equipment needs to besanitized to isolate and prevent further spread of the disease. Thisresults in a tremendous cost savings for the hospital. Of course,numerous other advantages are realized by users of the system bothwithin and outside a hospital setting.

In FIG. 17 the relationship relevancy system 5 is illustrated as beingemployed in a hospital 510 that includes an interaction and trackingsurveillance system (ITS system) 10, a position determination system(PDS) 204, proximity analysis system (PAS) 207, various people 201, 250,252, 254, 256, 258, 260, and objects or equipment generally designated301 all in our around a variety of different locations, areas, roomswings, wards, departments, etc. As described in detail herein, the ITS10 with or without the PDS 204 tracks the location of entities such aspeople, areas, equipment and the like while the PAS 207 (along withother systems) determines if a potential relationship may exist betweenthe entities and if so, what level of response may be required.

In FIG. 17, the hospital 510 includes a registration area 512 (e.g.,main registration or emergency room registration, etc.), patient room514, MRI services area 516, laboratory testing area 518, and a surgicalsuite 520, among other areas. Each of the locations 512, 514, 516, 518,520 as well as other areas of the hospital 510 may be interacted with byone or more persons generally designated 201 (e.g., doctors, patients,nurses, janitorial staff, etc.) or objects 301 (e.g., hospitalequipment, such as beds, stretchers, EKG machines, IV carts, MRImachines, food carts and trays, drugs, etc.), such that relations andinteractions between and among the various persons, objects andlocations potentially impacts other individuals, objects and locationsin the hospital.

For example, an infected patient 250 infected with an airbornecommunicable disease entering the hospital in the registration area 512may be sent to the MRI services area 516, where he comes in contact withthe MRI machine 350 and the MRI technician 254. After leaving the MRIservices area 516, the infected patient travels the halls (not shown) ofthe hospital 510 to his room 514 where he comes into proximity with anurse and/or doctor 258, and touches his bed 354 and IV cart 356. Inaddition, the infected patient's blood is sent to the laboratory 518 foranalysis, where the lab technician 256 contacts the blood.

A second patient 252 enters the MRI machine 350 after the infectedpatient 250 departs. Subsequently, the second patient 252 has surgery inthe surgical suite 520 on an operating table 352. Thus, by moving aroundthe hospital 510, the infected patient 250 has come into proximity(thereby establishing a relationship) with the various locations,persons and objects. The effect or relevance of the relationships andproximity of the infected person 250 to these entities is that the otherpersons, objects and areas may themselves contract the airborne diseaseand/or help spread the disease to others that they subsequently comeinto proximity with.

The movement of the infected person 250, other persons and objects inand around the hospital 510 may be determined in any number of waysincluding by the PDS 204. As discussed in greater detail below,depending on the implementation, the PDS 204 (or elements thereof) maybe located in one or more areas of the hospital 510.

The relationship relevancy system 5 may include an interaction andtracking surveillance system (ITS system) 10 that interacts with the PDS204 and other components of the relationship relevancy system 5 toidentify relationships and proximities of entities in the hospital anddetermine the relevancy of such relationships. The ITS system 10 may belocated within the hospital 510 or at a remote location. The ITS system10 may be controlled and operated by a user 130 (e.g., in anadministration department 522) or in some other location in the hospital510.

The ITS system 10 interacts with a proximity analysis system 207 todetermine the level of proximity of the identified relationships amongthe entities. In the example of FIG. 17, the infected patient 250 cameinto proximity with the registration area 512, the nurse 260 in theregistration area 512, the MRI services area 516, the MRI machine 350,the MRI technician 254, the room 514, a doctor 258, the bed 354 and theIV cart 356. In addition, his blood contacted the laboratory 518 and thelab technician 256. However, the effect of such proximities may varydepending on the level of proximity the infected person 250 had witheach of these entities. That is, the infected person 250 may have beenintimately involved with the MRI machine 350, the bed 354 and the doctor258 (e.g., physical contact or moderate to close distance for arelatively long period of time), thereby resulting in a high level ofproximity with these entities. In contrast, the infected person 250 mayhave been nominally involved with the MRI technician 254, the nurse 260and the IV cart 356 (e.g., fleeting contact or merely passing distancesfor short periods of time), resulting in a low level of proximity withthese entities.

Based on the determined levels of proximity as well as information(e.g., the particular disease identified, information specific to thatdisease, treatment of the disease, etc.) obtained from one or moreinformation sources, including historical database 400, entity database441, contact database 442, setting database 443, condition database 444and traditional file system 446, the ITS system 10 determines the effector relevancy of the relationships of the infected patient 250. Forexample, because the communicable disease of the infected patient 250 isprimarily transmitted by air, and generally in instances where there isrepeated or lengthy exposure, the effect of the infected patient'srelationship with the doctor 258 (i.e., where there was a high level ofproximity) may be significant.

Thus, the ITS system 10 may declare that the doctor 258 is likelycontaminated and/or that the doctor 258 is a carrier and that otherpersons 102 that the doctor 258 has a relationship with (e.g., thesecond patient 252 or the laboratory technician 256) are also at highrisk for contracting the communicable disease of the infected patient250 (even though the infected patient 250 may not have had a directrelationship with such entities). In contrast, even though the infectedpatient 250 has a high level of proximity with the MRI machine 350,based on information about the communicable disease, the ITS system 10may determine that the relevance of such relationship is insignificant(e.g., the MRI machine 350 is unlikely to transmit an airborne disease).Similarly, although the MRI technician 254 could contract or carry thecommunicable disease, the infected patient's level of proximity with theMRI technician 254 is low enough that there is little or only moderatesignificance to such relationship.

When the system of the present disclosure is employed in a hospital, forexample, the lab 518 is often (but not always) the first department toknow about a potential outbreak of a disease or infection, including anHAI. If so, the lab 518 can initiate an alert and various people,equipment and rooms are identified for further treatment or action.Additionally, the lab 518 may test the specific strain of the disease orinfection for its resistance to antibiotics or disinfectants and ifpossible can instruct the usage of a more cost effective antibiotic ordisinfectant or the like.

The user 130 may manage the ITS system 10 and receive output from theITS system 10, including alerts generated by an alert system 208 to warnhospital staff of a possible infectious disease outbreak, securitybreach or other notable condition. Such alerts may be presented, forexample, in the administration department 522 or in other relevantlocations in the hospital 510. In addition, a relational visualizationsystem 205 (described in greater detail below) may present therelationship, level of proximity and relevancy information regarding therelationships to the operator 130 or other user of the relationshiprelevancy system 5 on a display device 227. The relational visualizationsystem 205 may also allow the operator 130 to interact with the ITSsystem 10 to select relationships of interest or provide additionalinformation about those relationships.

In this manner the relationship relevancy system 5 is able to generallymonitor and track the movement of entities in and around the hospital510 and determine the spread of infectious diseases or other conditionsof interest to other areas of the hospital 510 (e.g., from the emergencyroom to a maternity ward) or to other entities associated with thehospital 510 (e.g., from a patient to a doctor, from a patient toanother patient via a piece of hospital equipment, from one visitor toanother by virtue of being in the hospital at or nearly at the sametime, etc.). The relationship relevancy system 5 may also predict theoccurrence of a transfer or outbreak (e.g., based on the number ofentities that may have had a relationship with an infected entity andthe movement of those entities), determine behavior patterns or profilesof entities in the system (e.g., accumulate a knowledge base of typicalactivities and movement patterns for doctors, staff and/or certainpieces of equipment), and predict deviations from that behavior orprofile (e.g., detect unauthorized access by hospital staff is the staffis not typically in a particular area or lingers too long, etc.).

Interaction and Tracking Surveillance System

Referring to FIG. 1, a use-case diagram of the interaction and trackingsurveillance system 10 in accordance with the relationship relevancysystem 5 and the present disclosure is shown. The ITS system 10 includesa gather entity information use case 104 that interacts with a number ofentities 101, 102, 103, 201, 202, 203, 301, 302, 303 in or around theITS System 10 to track and store identification information, positionand location data, time and other related information about thoseentities. The information gathered by the gather entity information usecase 104 includes, for example, current position of an entity, thelength of time an entity is in a particular position, previous visits toa position, identification with respect to the other entities in thesystem (e.g., such that distinctions among entities may be made or oneor more of the entities may be isolated or labeled), co-location datarelating to which entities are determined to be in which locations atwhat times and for what duration, which entities are in proximity toother entities, the type of interaction those entities have with eachother (e.g., whether there was physical contact between two entities),and the position or location of such interaction. Such data gathered viathe gather entity information use case 104 may be stored in hard copyform or in a historical database 400 in an organized manner for futureretrieval and use by the ITS system 10. Databases are generally known inthe art, and a detailed discussion thereof is omitted here forconvenience only and should not be considered limiting. The database 400may generally be any such data storage device generally configured forthe organized storage and retrieval of data.

Although some embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to theautomatic or electronic gathering of information by the gather entityinformation use case 104, it is to be understood that the relationrelevancy system 5 may include various items of other information inelectronic or hard copy or paper form or combinations thereof thatcurrently exist in a hospital setting or may be developed in the future.For example, the relation relevancy system 5 can be implemented bygathering information such as date and time of admittance from anadmittance form, date and time of an x-ray or the like, room androommates assigned, doctors and nurses treating the patient during thestay in the hospital and other similar information. Such information canbe input into a computer system for automatic analysis or gathered andinterpreted manually if desired without departing from the teachings ofthe present disclosure.

The types of entities interacting with and monitored by the ITS system10 include persons (individuals) 201, 202, groups of people 203, objects301, 302 (e.g., equipment, machinery, chemical compounds), groups ofobjects 303, locations (e.g., a room, a cell, a building, etc.) 401, 402and groups of locations 403. Similarly, the entities may be digitalentities (not shown), such as files or bytes of information that arestored on a computer, server or database. The information gatheredrelating to these digital entities via the gather entity information usecase 104 may include, for example, the IP addresses of computers ornetworks on which the digital data are located. Similarly, within thecontext of a telephone conversation, the entities may include thedigital signals that are transferred over analog or digital phone linesfrom one location to another via connections over a telephone or datanetwork or data packets being transferred from one computer to anothercomputer. Similarly, the entities may be business entities or legalfictions such as corporations.

Position Determination System

The gather entity information use case 104 may interact with a positiondetermination system 204 to substantially automatically determine,monitor and/or track the positions of the various entities 101, 102,103, 201, 202, 203, 301, 302, 303 and the time at which such positionsand movement occur. In one embodiment, the Position determination system204 determines position using an RFID tag and tag reader system; inanother embodiment, the position determination system 204 utilizes a GPSor infrared (IR) system to determine position. The use of both RFID tagand reader systems and GPS or IR systems to track position and movementof objects are generally known in the art and a detailed discussionthereof is omitted here for convenience only and should not beconsidered limiting. Moreover, the position determination system 204 mayemploy any generally known or future method or system consistent withthe present disclosure to determine position of the entities.

In one embodiment, the position determination system 204 determinespositions and movements of entities using an RFID tag and reader system(not shown), and includes RFID tag readers placed at specific, knownpositions within a building or other location, such that RFID tagsplaced on the entities being tracked are recognized by the RFID tagreaders as the entity moves within predetermined distances of the RFIDtag readers. In this manner, the position and corresponding time ofentities within the system may be determined and recorded.

For example, in a hospital setting, RFID tag readers can be placed in,on or around entry and exit points, rooms, doorways, closets, corridors,etc. Individuals and objects (e.g., patients, visitors, doctors, nurses,technicians, housekeeping staff, commissary staff, janitors, equipment,etc.) can receive RFID tags. For example, a RFID tag can be placed on apatient's identification band on the patient's wrist; RFID tags cansimilarly be incorporated with employee or visitor badges. Similarly,hospital equipment such as heart rate monitors, defibrillators,wheelchairs, and other items can each also receive RFID tags.

Those skilled in the art will recognize that RFID tags employed as partof the position determination system 204 are linked in some manner to adatabase or similar system, and, via an identifier, to its associatedentity, such that movement of the RFID tag would correspond to movementof that entity. The RFID tags could also be linked to class informationidentifying the class of the entity. For example, doctors, nurses, andaides can carry RFID tags with a first class identifier, while patientscan carry RFID tags with a second class identifier assisting inunderstanding the relationships of the entities being tracked.

As entities having RFID tags pass by point(s) having a RFID tag reader,the location of the RFID tag reader and the time at which the RFID tagwas detected is recorded (e.g., in the historical data database 400). Byplacing additional RFID tag readers at additional locations, moredetailed data can be generated. For example, by placing RFID tag readerson the various rooms of the hospital, more detailed data could becollected about which entity was present in which room at which time,and for how long. Similarly, the analysis of this data both in real-timeand in conjunction with analyzing stored data can help to determineposition and time of other entities relative to the entity in question.In one embodiment, the RFID tags are equipped with tag readercapabilities, such that entities carrying such tags can detect otherentities carrying RFID tags and/or track the distance between otherentities.

Those skilled in the art will recognize that, in an embodiment employinga GPS or IR system, the position or location information of the entitiescould be determined in a similar manner. Moreover, the positioninformation gathered by the gather entity information use case 104 fromthe position determination system 204 could be obtained using one ormore of a variety of positional sources or methods generally known inthe art or a combination thereof.

The position and tracking methods of the present disclosure are notlimited to analyzing the positional histories of the loci of entitymovement in a predetermined environment, but can include direct realtime readings from any of a variety of reading devices including, forexample, cameras, kiosks or other similar mechanisms with readers (e.g.,RFID, optical, biometric) for badge or tag processing. Such systemstypically include passive or active tags or readers, including hardwarethat is able to receive and transmit signals appropriate for theprotocol being used and location tracking software for capturing andpreprocessing such data. The relevant tag or identification mechanismcan optionally be worn by people or can be attached or integrated withportable equipment or the environment (e.g., being placed on particularlocations within the system). Those skilled in the art will recognizethat the position determination technology may be incorporated withknown networking and data transmission protocols and/or infrastructure(e.g., local area networks (LANs), the Internet, wireless protocols,etc.).

Preference Selection

A set selection preferences use case 117 allows a user or operator 130of the ITS System 10 to set preferences and criteria relative to thetracked entities and otherwise generally interact with the ITS system 10to manage its operation. The user 130 may be an individual, group ofpeople (e.g., company representative, administrative staff, securitypersonnel, etc.), company, or another electronic system (e.g., computeror computer network). For example, in a prison setting, operation of theITS System could be managed by contractor (e.g., for initial systemset-up) and/or security (e.g., tasked with monitoring the movement ofthe tracked entities within prison). For example, security staff wouldlikely monitor the movement of prison guards and inmates. In a hospitalsetting (e.g., tracking transmission of an infectious disease), the user130 may be hospital administrative staff, a nursing station, theadmissions center or central database, or specialists, such as from theCenter for Disease Control (CDC) or other medical emergency personnelwho are skilled at tracking and containing disease outbreaks.

The user or operator 130 interfaces with the ITS system 10 via a userinterface (not shown) configured to accept user input and provideappropriate feedback and options to the user. Such interfaces aregenerally known in the art; any type of user interface may be used,including keyboard, mouse, touch-screen, voice recognition or the likeor any combination thereof. For example, the interface may present theconfigurable items on a display or in a drop-down menu for acceptance bythe set selection preferences use case 117. During operation of the ITSSystem 10, the settings of the set selection preferences use case 117may be altered either permanently (e.g., default) or temporarily (e.g.,for runtime operations and display customization).

In one embodiment, the set selection preferences use case 117 receivescriteria that define which entities are selected as being of interest tothe operator 130 and/or to the setting or situation generally. Forexample, in a hospital setting it may not be very interesting to monitorlocations of animals (and relationships associated therewith), whereasit is more important to track newly admitted patients. Thus, the setselection preferences use case 117 defines and sets criteria and otherthresholds with respect to selecting which entities are of interest tothe system. Included in the selection preferences are settings thatconfigure the ITS System 10 for operation, including settings such as,for example, what type of entities are to be monitored, what criteriaare used to select entities of interest, what type of entities are to beselected as relationships considered to be associated with the selectedentity, what kinds of proximity will be tracked and monitored (e.g.,selecting entities which maintain a specified distance from one anotheror selecting which entities maintain a specified distance from aparticular location, whether contact proximity will be considered oronly physical proximity comprising the distance between two or moreentities, whether time proximity will be considered, etc.), how theintimacy score is to be calculated, what sorts of relationships will beconsidered relevant, and what types of relevancies or situations willtrigger an alert (e.g. when proximity rules are violated or thresholdsare crossed).

Additionally, the set selection preferences use case 117 receivescriteria and instructions employed by the determine relevance ofrelationship use case 107 and the generate alerts use case 128 (bothdiscussed in greater detail below).

FIG. 15 is a class diagram of the types of criteria that may be setusing the set selection preferences use case 117 to determine whichentities to select as being of interest for further analysis. Theclasses shown in FIG. 15 are not exhaustive, but serve as an example ofcriteria that can be pre-set into the system or selected by the user 130to defined on what basis to select entities. The set selectionpreferences use case 117 optionally selects one or more items from theclasses and metaclass to enable the select entity of interest use case105 to select one or more entities to comprise the selected entity setfor further analysis.

The date class 221 includes various dates from which the select entityof interest use case 105 will select one or more entities. The timeclass 222 includes times within a twenty-four hour period. The entitymetaclass 223 includes the types of entities in the ITS System 10, suchas persons, objects, and locations.

The category class 224 identifies the category of entities for eachentity type. For example, in a hospital setting, classes of persons caninclude doctors, patients, nurses, aides, housekeeping staff, janitorialstaff, security staff, management, visitors. These classes can beconfigured to be as narrow or broad as defined by the user or operator130 setting the criteria for the set selection preferences use case 117.Categories of objects may include, for example, object classes such asmedical equipment (e.g., EKG machines, oxygen tanks) or transitoryequipment (e.g., wheelchairs, walkers, stretchers), etc.

The condition class 225 identifies the type of condition, concern orother aspect for which a particular type of entity may be desired to betracked. For example, in a hospital setting, the condition class 225includes various types of conditions that a patient might be admittedfor or otherwise be identified with. The condition class 225 includescategories such as emergency, terminal disease (e.g., cancer),maternity, wounds (e.g., puncture wounds, gun shots), appointment (e.g.,for patients who come in for only a short period of time). Similarly,the condition class 225 could also include the various kinds of diseases(e.g., infectious diseases, airborne diseases, HAIs, bacterialinfections, communicable by touch, etc.) so that when entities ofinterest are selected, when relationships associated with the selectedentity are identified, and when proximity is analyzed (e.g., whichaspects of proximity are to be analyzed and which aspects are to beconsidered when calculating intimacy score, etc.), the relevantrelationships may be properly determined.

The location class 226 includes various locations in the ITS System 10that an entity may be present, including, for example, lobby, maternitywing, cancer wing, emergency room, cafeteria, patient rooms, or parkinglot.

The present disclosure is not limited to the classes and metaclasslisted herein, and may include other types of classes or metaclassesbased on the needs of the user 130 configuring the ITS System 10 basedon the particular setting, environment or situation.

Additionally, when instructing the select entity of interest use case105 as to which entities to select, the set selection preferences usecase 117 can interact with the retrieve items of information use case109 to retrieve information to further define how the select entity ofinterest use case 105 selects entities. For example, the retrieve itemsof information use case 109 can be configured to retrieve informationfrom a condition database 444 (e.g., a database containing informationabout diseases and their characteristics) to instruct the select entityof interest use case 105 to select entities based at least in part onepidemiological infection transmission characteristics of diseases whichare set to be monitored. As an example, certain diseases may onlyrequire a minimal proximity or a physical contact to effecttransmission, yet transmission may be independent of the duration of theproximity or contact. Thus, the select entity of interest use case 105could be configured to consider persons who move within a proximity to apatient having a particular disease independent of the time proximityconsiderations.

Entity Selection and Relationship Determination

The select entity of interest use case 105 receives information from thegather entity information use case 104, and interacts with the setselection preferences use case 117 to obtain one or more pre-definedcriteria (e.g., an entity present at a particular time or date, anentity having a particular condition, an entity belonging to particularclass of entities, an entity at a particular location, an entity thathas been in a selected set of locations, an entity that has not moved ina given period of time, an entity that has been in proximity withanother entity, an entity that recently had physical contact withanother entity, etc.) or some combination thereof to determine one ormore entities that might be of interest to the ITS system 10 for furtheranalysis.

The select entity of interest use case 105 may select a single entity, aplurality of individual entities, a class (i.e., type) or group ofentities, multiple classes of entities, or other set of entities deemedto be of interest for further analysis. For example, in one embodimentthe ITS System 10 tracks individual persons moving throughout a locationor set of locations. In this embodiment the select entity of interestuse case 105 may select, based on preset criteria from the set selectionpreferences use case 117, an individual person or a group of personsthat entered a hospital through a certain entrance for furtherrelationship analysis. Similarly, classes or groups of people can alsobe selected according to a shared trait or feature attributed to each ofthose persons. For example, the class of maternity ward patients in ahospital, and the class of medical staff who attend to the maternityward patients can be selected to comprise the selected entity set.

An identify relationships use case 113 identifies entities that havecome into proximity with the entity, entities, or group(s) of entitieswithin the selected entity set and places those entities in anidentified-as-related entity set. For example, the entities in theidentified-as-related entity set may be other people or objects thathave been within a predefined radius of the entities in the selectedentity set, that have been within the same room as the one or moreentities in the selected entity set or that have come into physicalcontact with the selected entity set, or that have been in one or morelocations (e.g., rooms or areas of a building) that the selected entityset has been located within, etc. The entities of theidentified-as-related entity set are associated with the entities of theselected entity set and have a relationship with them by virtue of theiridentified association. Thus, the fact that there is a relationshipbetween two or more entities or groups thereof presupposes that aproximity exists, or at one time existed, between the entities of theselected entity set and those of the identified-as-related entity set.As discussed in greater detail below, the identified relationships (andtheir associated entities) may be displayed or otherwise visuallyrepresented to via the relational visualization system 205.

When the identify relationships use case 113 identifies relationshipsassociated with a selected entity, not every entity being monitored bythe ITS System 10 will be included as being part of a relationship. Thatis, an entity in the ITS system 10 will not necessarily have arelationship with one or more other entities in the system. Furthermore,there may be entities in the ITS System 10 that do not have arelationship with the entities in the selected set. This is because thatonly entities that have had an interaction with one another or entitieswhich have come in proximity with one another on one or more occasionsare said to have a relationship.

Referring to FIG. 16, an example of identifying related entities depictsa waiting room 401 a (e.g., the waiting and/or entry area for aparticular area, department, or wing, such as the emergency, oncology orcardiology) which a part of a hospital (not shown) being monitored by orthat otherwise utilizes the ITS System 10. For purposes of this example,employees, patients and visitors check in and receive a badge as theyenter the hospital that enables their position(s) within the hospital tobe tracked. In the example of FIG. 16, entities enter and exit thewaiting area 401 a via an exterior entrance 410 or through one or moreinterior doorways or hallways 412, 414 that lead to other areas of thehospital. Sick person 201 a has symptoms of an infectious airbornevirus, including a bloody nose and a body drenched from sweat. Hereceives his badge (not shown) upon entering the building, and entersthe waiting room 401 a via the main exterior entrance 410. In thewaiting room 401 a, there are office staff 201 c, 201 d, 201 e (e.g.,nurses, orderlies, administrative staff) sitting behind a registrationcounter 301, an otherwise healthy patient 201 b leaving the waiting roomvia the exterior entrance 410, and other patients 201 g, 201 h, waitingto be seen by a doctor, including a blind person 201 f and her seeingeye dog 302. After entering the waiting room 401 a, sick person 201 arushes to the registration counter 301 and on his way, collides withotherwise healthy patient 201 b knocking him to the floor. Afterchecking in, sick person 201 a takes a seat next to the other patients201 f, 201 g, 201 h.

In this example, the set selection preferences use case 117 (e.g., basedon preferences and other input from the user 130) has identifiedcriteria for selecting entities of interest to include the day that thesick person 201 a is in the hospital, as well as specifying that theentities of interest be patients. In addition, the set selectionpreferences use case 117 specifies that unscheduled hospital visits betracked.

In the example of FIG. 16, based on the criteria of the set selectionpreferences use case 117, the only person in the hospital (in thisexample) who would be selected by the select entity of interest use case105 to be part of the selected entity set would be the sick person 201a; the other people in the waiting room 401 a would not be selected asan entity of interest because they did not meet the criteria set by theuser in the set selection preferences use case 117 (i.e., they were notin building for unscheduled visits). Those skilled in the art willrecognize that, in other examples, additional entities would likelysatisfy the criteria established by the set selection preferences usecase 117.

Continuing with the example of FIG. 16, the identify relationship usecase 113 identifies other persons in the hospital with whom sick person201 a has been in proximity with or who he has come in contact with ashaving a relationship with sick person 201 a (i.e., theidentified-as-related entity set). Such persons would include patient201 b who came into physical contact with sick person 201 a when beingknocked to the ground, the staff 201 c, 201 d, 201 e at the registrationcounter 301, and the other patients 201 f, 201 g, 201 h in the waitingroom 401 a. The seeing-eye dog 302 would be excluded from theidentified-as-related entity set because, even though the dog 302 was inthe same room as the sick person 201, the criteria set in the setselection preferences use case 117 only selected persons, not objects.

Based on the relationships identified in the identify relationships usecase 113, the proximity between the sick person 201 a and the otherpersons in the hospital are analyzed by the proximity analysis system207 (discussed below). The retrieve items of information use case 109(also discussed below) would retrieve items of information relating toexcited person 201 a and his relevant conditions), and the determinerelevance of relationship use case 107 (also discussed below) woulddetermine that the other persons in the waiting room were likely exposedto the virus of sick person 201 a. Thus, the ITS System 10 couldinitiate an alert via the generate alerts use case 128 instructing thatthe other persons who were in the waiting room 401 a be located andquarantined. Optionally, the ITS System 10 could add the persons in thewaiting room 401 a who were formerly in the identified-as-related entityset to form a secondary selected entity set and cycle through the ITSSystem 10 to determine who is in the identified-as-related entity setfor those persons likely exposed to the virus that sick person 201 abrought into the doctor's office, etc.

Relationship Types

Generally, the identify relationships use case 113 in FIG. 1 mayidentify a number of different types of relationships to be part of theidentified-as-related entity set. Such relationships can includeperson-person relationships, person-object relationships, object-objectrelationships, person-location relationships, and other types ofrelationships each of which will now be described in more detail andapply to a variety of settings other than the specific examples listed.

Person-person relationships include relationships where there is aproximity between two or more individuals. These relationships (whendescribed with respect to a medical setting) include, for example,doctor-patient relationships, patient-patient relationships,patient-visitor relationships, and person-to-person relations amongmedical staff. Similarly, with respect to a prison setting,person-person relationships include relationships between a prison guardor a warden or prison staff (hereinafter, “prison security personnel”)and a prisoner, one or more of a group of prison guards and one or moreof a group of prisoners, relationships between prisoners, andrelationships between one or more of a group of prisoners and one ormore of a group of visitors. Similarly, in a retail shopping settingwhere the habits of shoppers are tracked (e.g., via a tracking devicebeing placed in or on a shopping cart), person-person relationships mayinclude interactions between one or more shoppers (e.g., does a shopperbuy more when more than one shopper shops together?), shoppers and salesstaff, etc. In a government agency setting, person-person relationshipsmight include tracking interactions between employees, between employeesand non-employees within the agency building, and between employees andpeople in the outside world (e.g., phone conversations or e-mailtransactions between employees and non-employees).

Person-object relationships include relationships where there is aproximity between a person and an object. This can include being in acommon location with the object or being in physical contact with thatobject. The object can be any object, and is not limited by the examplesbelow. Examples of person-object relationships in a medical settinginclude a contact between a doctor, nurse, hospital staff (hereinafter,“medical staff”) or patient, and, for example, hospital equipment (e.g.,stretchers, syringes, heart monitors, etc.), cell phones, doors,toilets, etc. that have come into proximity or contact with the persons.Other examples include an interaction between a person and an isolate (amicrobial or viral sample). With respect to a prison setting,person-object relationships include, for example, contact between prisonsecurity personnel and prison security equipment (including contact withlocks, gates, entrance and exit doorways, prison cells, prisoncomputers, or network equipment), as well as contact between prisonersand prison security equipment (including computer equipment, internetaccess, and network servers or web sites accessed with the computerequipment). Other examples of relationships between persons and objectsinclude detecting and/or determining a relationship that could determinethe source of a theft that has taken place with a particular piece ofequipment. For example, a person-object relationship could include aRFID tag or other means of tracking an interaction between a person anda piece of equipment wherein that interaction between the person and theequipment is tracked or logged. When a piece of equipment is missing,monitoring the interactions can determine who has had access to or whohas been in the vicinity of that equipment that is now missing.

Object-object relationships include interactions between objects thatare moved to be in proximity with one another or which are used inconjunction with one another. For example, an object-object relationshipcan comprise medical equipment (e.g., EKG machine) being used inconjunction with other devices (e.g., a monitor and a printer) which areattached to the medical equipment. Similarly, it could comprise a RFIDtag which interacts with a RFID tag reader when the two are brought intoproximity. Object-object relationships also include isolates and objectssuch as laboratory equipment that have come into contact with theisolates.

Person-location relationships include interactions between persons orgroups of persons and a location or a group of locations. For example,referring to FIG. 1, a person-location relationship can comprise a firstperson 201 and a first location 401, wherein the first person 201 couldbe one of a group of persons 203, and the first location 401 could beone of a group of locations 403 or a subset of a larger structure (e.g.,a room within a wing of a hospital, or a room within a building).

Similarly, object-location relationships include interactions betweenone or more objects and a location or a group of locations. This type ofrelationship can comprise, for example, a first object 301 and a firstlocation 401, wherein the first object 301 could be one of a group ofobjects 303, and the first location 401 could be one of a group oflocations 403 or a subset of a larger structure (e.g., a room within awing of a hospital, or a room within a building). For example, theobject may be a piece of equipment or a RFID tag or other trackingmechanism attached to an object which is detected to be in or to passthrough a particular location such as an entry or exit point, a securitygate or checkpoint, a particular wing of a hospital, a prison cell orsection or block of a prison, or more generally, a room within abuilding or structure.

Proximity Analysis

A proximity analysis system 207 analyzes the positional information anddetermines the proximity, the level of proximity, and the intimacyscores of the relationships between one or more entities in the selectedentity set and their respective identified-as-relevant one or moreentities of the identified-as-related set. FIG. 2 is a use-case diagramof the proximity analysis system 207, including a receive entitypositions use case 108 that interacts with the ITS System 10 and thehistorical database 400 to retrieve the present and previous positiondata (as previously discussed) and corresponding times of the entitiescontained in both the selected entity and the identified-as-relatedentity sets. A determine level of proximity use case 111 analyzes thevarious kinds of proximity that can take place between the selectedentity set and the identified-as-related entity set.

In discussing the level of proximity between the entities in thedetermine level of proximity use case 111, two components generallydescribe the level of the proximity in terms of physical separation andtime. A determine physical component of proximity use case 114 analyzesthe physical separation between the entities and the various kinds ofproximity that relate to physical separation between entities. Thesecond component of proximity (i.e., duration or time) is described ingreater detail below within the context of the determine time componentof proximity use case 115. Additionally, the determination of the levelof proximity between the entities is impacted by the number of times inwhich proximity (i.e., instances of physical proximity) occurs betweenentities of the selected entity set and entities of theidentified-as-related entity set. Repeated instances of proximity tendto increase the level of proximity between the entities, as described indiscussing the intimacy score below.

FIG. 3 is a proximity-type tree diagram 333 that depicts an example ofthe various kinds and levels of proximity that can occur between theselected entity and the entities with which the selected entity has arelationship (i.e., the identified-as-related entity set), as determinedby the determine level of proximity use case 111 in FIG. 2.

One type of proximity determined by the determine physical component ofproximity use case 114 is represented by a physical proximity class 311in the proximity-type tree diagram 333. Generally, physical proximityoccurs when one entity is within some relevant, definable physicaldistance of another entity, where the entities are not necessarily inphysical contact with each other. Thus, the physical proximity class 311generally involves measuring, detecting, or otherwise determiningcomponents of physical separation between entities or groups ofentities. Physical proximity in the physical proximity class 311 mayoccur, for example, when one of the entities of the selected entity setand another of the entities of the identified-as-related entity set arein the same room or enclosed structure at some distance apart, or whenthey are in different rooms or areas but have some relevant physicallink to each other (i.e., one of the entities passes by the other orpasses by a room in which the other of the entities is located).

FIG. 4 is a person-to-person physical proximity diagram which shows anexample of the physical proximity class 311. The physical proximity maybe a co-location between a first person 201 and a second person 202, orbetween one or more of a group of people 203 and a second person 202 orone or more of a group of second persons 203.

FIG. 5 is a person-to-object physical proximity diagram which showsanother example of the physical proximity class 311. In the example ofFIG. 5, the physical proximity can be the co-location between a person201 or one or more of a group of persons 203 and an object 301 or one ormore of a plurality or group of objects 303. Similarly, although notshown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the physical proximity may comprise contactproximity, as represented by the contact proximity class 312. Thecontact proximity could include the physical touching between a firstentity 201, 301 or one or more of a plurality or group of entities 203,303 and a second entity 202, 302 or one or more of a plurality or groupof entities 203, 303, etc.

FIG. 6 shows an example of the physical proximity where the entities inphysical proximity comprise people. Using the example of a medicalsetting, in FIG. 6 a doctor 201 a and a patient 202 a are in the sameroom 401 a. One of the medical personnel 201 b is located in a hallway403. The physical proximity that occurs is at least threefold. Oneinstance of physical proximity occurs between the doctor 201 a and thepatient 202 a in that they are in the same room 401 a and are positionedsome distance apart within that room. Another instance of physicalproximity occurs between the medical personnel member 201 b and thepatient 202 a in the room 401 a (e.g., as the medical personnel passesby the room 401 a). Another instance of physical proximity occursbetween the doctor 201 a and the medical personnel member 201 b.

Another example of physical proximity may occur in a prison setting, inthe form of physical separation between prison security personnel andthe prisoners that they are responsible for guarding. Thus, physicalproximity can be used to measure and track the interactions between aprison guard and a prisoner to determine whether a prison guard isapproaching a prisoner in an inappropriate or unscheduled way. Inaddition, the proximity between one prisoner 201 and another prisoner202, or one group of prisoners 203 and another prisoner 202 can betracked or monitored to detect fraternal relationships betweenindividual prisoners and groups of prisoners. This interaction candetect activities such as patterned behavior where the physicalproximity occurs between a multitude of individual prisoners 203 andanother prisoner 202, for example, one or more prisoners interactingwith a crime boss, a leader of a gang, or a drug dealer. Similarly, thephysical proximity could occur between groups of prisoners which areuseful in detecting gang activity and fraternal affiliations. Thephysical proximity may also include interactions between prison guardsand prisoners to detect any disease outbreaks as well as illegalactivities on the part of one or more of the prison guards, such as thephysical abuse of a prisoner or a group of prisoners by a prison guardor by a group of prison guards, or such as the supplying of illegalparaphernalia such as drugs or weapons from a guard to a prisoner, orfrom a prisoner to another prisoner.

Physical proximity can also comprise person-object interactions, where,for example, a person and an object are positioned within the same roomor location. Referring again to FIG. 6, a patient 201 b in a room of ahospital 401 b is in physical proximity to an object 301 b where adistance between the patient 201 b and the object 301 b is detected(e.g., when the detected distance between the patient 201 b and theobject 301 b crosses a certain threshold, it would be detected that theperson was entering or exiting the room). In another example, suchposition detection identifies that the object 301 b has entered the room401 b.

Similarly, the physical proximity of the physical proximity class 311can also reflect interactions in a prison setting, where the physicalproximity includes interactions between a prisoner and an item on his orher person or within his or her cell, or between one or more of a groupof prisoners and items on their persons or within each of theirrespective cells.

Still referring to FIG. 6, physical proximity also includes interactionsor a proximity between objects, namely a first object 301 c and a secondobject 302 c. For example, in a hospital setting, objects being trackedcan include a piece of equipment 301 c and an object 302 c in a room 401c to which that object is assigned. For example, physical proximity canbe detected by the placing of a heart monitor 301 c near a patient's bed302 c.

Physical proximity also includes interactions between one person and agroup of persons and one location or a group of locations, where the oneor more persons are positioned in a location or in a group of locations.Referring to FIG. 6, physical proximity can occur between a doctor 201 dand a particular location 401 d, where the doctor 201 d is positioned inor around that location 401 d. Such physical proximity between adoctor's position 201 d and a particular location 401 d may indicate thepresence of a doctor 201 d being in an area or room 401 d of thehospital that they do not have authorization to be present in. Thiswould be relevant if the doctor 401 d is found to frequent a room 401 dcontaining drugs or hazardous materials 301 d deemed to be improper forsomeone of their authorization level. Similarly, the absence of aparticular individual 201 e (reflected in the figure as an empty bed 301e) from a room 401 e to which that individual is assigned can indicatethat the individual 201 e has strayed into an area he does not havepermission to be located, or that, in the case where the patient is achild 201 e who has been brought into the hospital for suspicion ofchild abuse, the absence of that child 201 e from his assigned room 401e might indicate that a kidnapping has taken place.

Similarly, in a prison setting, physical proximity can be the presenceof a prisoner or one or more of the group of prisoners in an area of theprison or jail they do not have authorization to be present in, such asa room containing weapons. The physical proximity can also measure thephysical separation of a prisoner from his designated prison cell.Similarly, it could measure the physical separation of a group ofprisoners from an area within the prison in which they are scheduled tobe located. Further, the physical proximity can measure the physicalseparation of a prison guard from his designated post or area or wing ofthe prison the prison guard is responsible to guard to identify apotential security risk where the prison guard is not at his post.

Additionally, physical proximity can occur between an object 301 or oneof a plurality of objects 303 and a location 401 or one or more of aplurality of locations 403 to detect a deviation from the location inwhich the object is supposed to be located. This can help to detect atheft or an unauthorized usage of that object. For example, as shown inFIG. 6, physical proximity may reflect the distance from a particularpatient's room 401 b that a particular piece of equipment 301 b isdesignated to be located within. Similarly, physical proximity mayreflect the distance between a machine that supplies oxygen and asmoking room or a smoking area, where if the oxygen machine moved closeenough to the smoking area, a spark could ignite the oxygen within theoxygen machine. Similarly, in the setting of a prison, the physicalproximity can be relevant when tracking the movement of a firearm orfirearms towards a location inside the prison or within a block 403 ofthe prison designated as being weapon-free.

A subset of the physical proximity class 311 in FIG. 3 includes acontact proximity class 312. Here, the physical proximity can beevaluated in terms of whether there has been a physical touching orphysical contact between a first entity 101 and a second entity 102. Thecontact proximity class 312 has multiple subsets including a one-wayphysical contact class 313 and a bi-directional contact class 314. Theone-way physical contact class represents one-way physical contactbetween a first entity 101 which initiates and/or applies a force to areceiving, substantially passive second entity 102, or vice versa. Thebi-directional contact class 314 represents a two-way physical contactwhere the entities are touching one another with both taking an activepart in the contact.

In addition to the one-way physical contact sub-class 313 and thebi-directional contact sub-class 314, the contact proximity class 312also includes a bodily contact class 315 that represents a bodilycontact proximity where bodily fluids (such as, for example, saliva,mucus, or blood) of a first person 201 come into contact with a surface(such as skin surface, clothes, or objects attached) of a second person202.

Referring again to FIG. 4 (although contact between the entities is notspecifically depicted therein), contact proximity may include one-wayphysical contact (as reflected by the one-way physical contact class313) from a first person 201 or from one or more of a first group ofpersons 203 to a second person 202 or to one or more of a group ofpersons 203 and vice versa. Similarly, the contact proximity may includebi-directional contact proximity (as reflected by the bi-directionalcontact class 314). Such contact proximity occurs when one person 201 orone or more of the persons 203 touches the other person 202 or one ormore of the other persons 203. The touching can be a person-to-persontouching where contact is made between the skin, the clothes, or theobjects attached to the persons in contact.

FIG. 7 depicts an example of the bodily contact class 315 in a hospitalsetting. In the example of FIG. 7, bodily fluids 701 of a patient 201 acome into contact with the outer garments (e.g., clothes, gloves, etc.)of a doctor 202 a treating that patient. However, the bodily contactproximity could comprise the transfer of bodily fluids from one person201 a to another, such as is seen here where the doctor 202 b ispunctured by a syringe 703 that has come into contact with the fluids701 of patient 201 a.

In other embodiments, such bodily contact proximity could also occur,for example, when individuals share a syringe. Bodily contact proximitycan occur with regard to the transfer of fluids from one person toanother person, such as the kind of person-to-person fluid exchange thatcan occur in a restaurant where a person performs cardiopulmonaryrespiration (CPR) on another person. Similarly, bodily contact proximitymay occur in a prison setting where one or more individuals are inphysical contact, be it via a prison brawl or fright, or via sexualcontact between prisoners.

Referring again to FIGS. 2-3, another type of proximity that isaccounted for in the determine level of proximity use case 111 isrepresented by the determine time component of proximity use case 115which reflects the time or duration component of the physical proximitybetween the entities. As shown in the right-hand side of theproximity-type tree diagram 333 of FIG. 3, the time proximity class 316reflects interactions that take place between entities in time.Sub-classes of the time proximity class 316 include same-time proximityclass 317 and different time proximity class 318. The same-timeproximity class 317 represents forms of proximity that occur when theentities involved in the proximity are present in the same place at thesame time, while the different-time proximity class 318 represents formsof proximity that occur when the entities involved in the proximity arepresent in a location at different times. The various forms of timeproximity reflected by the time proximity class 316 of theproximity-type tree diagram 333 include duration measurements thatmeasures how long entities are in physical proximity with one another,along with a number of various kinds of time proximity measurements thatbe obtained regardless of whether the entities are subject to same-timeproximity 317 or different-time proximity 318.

FIG. 8 is a same-time proximity diagram that shows an example of therelationship between entities (in this example, people, objects, andlocations), where their physical proximity or co-location occurs over acommon duration of time. While the physical proximity class 311 reflectsthe physical separation in space between the entities, same-timeproximity 317 accounts for periods during which the entities were in thelocation at which the interaction occurred at common durations of time.Thus, in the interactions between the people, the objects and thelocations in the example of FIG. 8, such interactions occur at oneinstance of time depicted by one clock 903; this differs from otherexamples where multiple clocks reflect interactions where the entitiesare not necessarily in the same location at the same time.

Thus, in the example of same-time proximity in FIG. 8, a first person201 and a second person 202, or a first person 201 and or one or more ofa group of persons 203 are present in a particular location at the sametime. Similarly, an example of same-time proximity occurs where a firstperson 201 and an object 301, or one or more of a group of persons 203and an object 301 or one or more of a plurality of objects 303 arepresent in a particular location 401 at the same time. Same-timeproximity can also occur where a first object 301 or one or more of aplurality of first objects 303 and a second object 302 are present inthe location 401 at the same time. Accordingly, one measurement that maybe taken in a same-time proximity relationship or interaction is theduration in which the entities are in physical proximity to each other.

The different-time proximity class 318 describes interactions betweenentities where the entities are present in a common location, but atdifferent times. Here, the entities are not necessarily present in aparticular location at the same time.

There are a number of ways of measuring different-time proximity. In oneinstance, different-time proximity measures elapsed-time proximity,where two or more entities are in contact with a particular location,but time has passed between a first time that a first entity has left aparticular position within a location and a second time that a secondentity has entered the location where the prior entity was located.

FIG. 9 shows an example of a relationship between entities (in thisexample, people) in a common position 901 within a room 401, but atdifferent times. On the left side of FIG. 9 a first person 201 (or agroup of persons 203) in position 901 in the room 401 at a first time T1903 (in this example, 3 p.m.). On the right-hand side of FIG. 9 is asecond person 202 in the same position 901 of the room 401 at a secondtime T2 904 (i.e., 5 p.m.). The rooms 401 and positions 901 used by bothentities 201, 202 are the same, except that two hours have passedbetween T1 and T2 (i.e., the time since the first person 201 (or thefirst group 203) left the room 401 and the second person 202 entered theroom two hours later). While noting that the positions 901 of theentities within the room 401 at times T1 and T2 are the same position,those skilled in the art will recognize that there is no requirement forelapsed-time proximity that the entities necessarily have to be in thesame exact position 901 at their respective times. Additionally, whilethe entities in the example of FIG. 9 are persons 201, 202, 203, itshould be understood that elapsed-time proximity is applicableregardless of whether the entities include people, objects, or acombination thereof.

Another way of measuring the different-time proximity class 318 reflectshow long each of two or more entities have been in a particularlocation. This can be referred to as time presence proximity, and issimilar to the conditions represented by elapsed-time proximity in thatsome time passed between the time a first entity exited a particularlocation and a second time a second entity entered that same location.Time-presence proximity can also represent a measurement of thesame-time proximity class 317 in that the measurement determines howlong each set of entities are in a particular location when thoseentities are co-located for at least a period of time.

FIG. 10 is a time-presence proximity diagram that shows an example ofthe amount of time entities (in this example, people) are present in aparticular location or room 401. In the example of FIG. 10, both sets ofentities are in the room 401 at different times. On the left side ofFIG. 10 is a first person 201 (or a group of persons 203) in position901 in the room 401 at a first time T1 903 (here, 3 p.m.). The length oftime the first person 201 (or the group of persons 203) is present 905shows that the first set of individuals was present in room 401 for onehour. On the right-hand side of FIG. 10 is a second person 202 in theposition 901 in the room 401 at a second time T2 904 (here, 5 p.m.). Theamount of time the second person 202 was present 906 shows that thesecond individual was present in the room 401 for five minutes. Again,while persons 201, 202, 203 are depicted in this figure, this measureapplies regardless of whether the entities are people, are people andobjects, or are objects.

The relevance of the time-presence proximity determination is that if asecond entity is in a particular location in which a first entity beinginfected with a disease is or was present, and the first entity waspresent in the room for only a short period of time (e.g., fiveminutes), there is a lower chance the second entity will be infected bythe disease of the first entity. However, where the first entity havinga disease spent a significant amount of time in that location, simply bythe second entity entering the room, she bears a much higher risk ofpicking up and or becoming infected with the disease transmitted throughcontact with objects in the room or through airborne transmission by thefirst entity.

Another consideration in the different time proximity is alocation-specific time proximity, where the proximity of a second entityto a position within a location in which the first entity was formerlylocated is accounted for. FIG. 11 is a location-specific time proximitydiagram that shows an example of the position of different individualsin a particular location at different times. On the left side of FIG. 11is an individual 201 who is in position 901 in room 401 at time T1 903;room 401 having an adjoining room 402. On the right side of FIG. 11, theperson 202 a is in position 902 in room 401, and is thus in an area ofthe room 401 which is some distance away from the position 901 in whichthe first person 201 was located at a second time T2 904. Additionally,another individual 202 b is in a room 402 adjoining the first room.

In the example of FIG. 11, if the patient 201 is infected with a diseaseat a first time T1 903 and was in contact with objects 303 located in aparticular position 901 or area of the room 401, and such contactresulted in bodily fluids being transferred from the infected patient201 to the objects within that area of the room, the relevance oflocation-specific time proximity becomes apparent when a second entity202 a, at a second, later time T2 904, enters the same room 401 in whichthe infected patient 201 formerly was located. The second entity 202 a,however, is located at position 902 within the room 401. There is a highlikelihood that any of the objects 303 that were contacted by both theinfected patient 201 and the second person 202 a could cause the secondperson 202 a to become infected with the disease with which the firstpatient 201 was infected. Thus, taking into consideration the distanceof the second person 202 a from the area of the room in which theinfected patient 201 was located (i.e., the distance between positions902 and 901), and whether the second entity 202 a contacts the objects303 in the room 401, will help determine whether the second person 202 amight be infected by the disease the patient 201 was infected with.

Furthermore, since some diseases are airborne, depending on the diseaseand the rate the disease spreads in a room, the distance of a secondperson 202 a from a location in which a first patient 201 carrying anairborne disease was located may become relevant. The farther away thesecond person 202 a is from the place in which the airborne disease fromthe first patient 201 was most concentrated may assist in determiningwhether the second person 202 a becomes infected with the disease spreadinto the air by the infected patient 201. This applies regardless ofwhether the second person 202 a is in the same room as the first person201 was in, or whether the second person 202 b is in a second room 402near or connected to the first room 401 (e.g., connected by a ventconnecting the rooms, air duct, or other passageway).

In considering the various kinds of proximity, successive instances ofproximity often increase the likelihood that the relevancy of therelationship will increase. For example, each time entities are inproximity where one of the entities is infected with a disease, therewill be an increased risk of becoming infected through repeated exposureto the disease. Similarly, if a doctor enters a room in which a patienthas a disease, and that doctor comes into a close physical proximity tothat patient on a number of successive visits, each successive visitincreases the likelihood that the doctor will be exposed to the virus.

Intimacy Score

Referring again to FIG. 2, the proximity analysis system 207 includes adetermine intimacy score use case 116 that retrieves proximity data fromthe determine physical component of proximity use case 114 and thedetermine time component of proximity use case 115 to create an intimacyscore. The intimacy score generally is a normalized, quantitativeassessment of components of the level of proximity pertaining to arelationship between one or more of the selected entity set and thecorresponding one or more of the identified-as-related entity set. Theintimacy score comprises an analysis of the proximity data, and assistsin quantifying and visualizing relationships between the selectedentities and their identified-as-related entity counterparts anddescribes the degree, level or strength of those relationships innumerical, indicia, or graphical form. The intimacy scores generated bythe determine intimacy score use case 116 may also be employed indetermining the relevancy of those relationships. The determine intimacyscore use case 116 thus assigns an intimacy score to a relationship whentwo or more entities come into physical proximity with one another.

The determine intimacy score use case 116 generates the intimacy scoreby applying any one or combination of algorithms to evaluate theproximity data. The intimacy score is generally a function of proximity(i.e., physical proximity) (f(duration, proximity)) and duration (i.e.,time proximity). While the intimacy score generally accounts for anumber of factors (e.g., the various kinds of proximity and theirconsiderations) in its weighing of the relationships between entities,the set selection preferences use case 117 may define the considerationswhich are used to calculate the intimacy score. For example, theintimacy score can be configured to consider only the physical proximity(e.g., how close two or more entities came within each other, whetherthere was contact between them, whether there was bodily contact)independent of the time proximity considerations. Similarly, theintimacy score may consider only the duration (time proximity) of thephysical proximity, independent of how far apart the two or moreentities were, and independent of what kind of physical proximityoccurred between the entities.

Similarly, the determine intimacy score use case 116 can be configuredto consider more than one instance of contact or other factors that mayincrease or decrease the intimacy score. As such, intimacy scoresrelative to successive and/or sequential instances of physical proximitymay be combined to result in a cumulative intimacy score. In oneembodiment, the cumulative intimacy score f(N1, N2) is1(1−f_1(N1,N2))*(1−f_2(N1, N2))* . . . * (1−f-i(N1, N2)). Thisembodiment treats each f-i(N1, N2) as an independent interaction, andcalculates the intimacy score from proximity data or otherconsiderations as defined, for example, by the set selection preferencesuse case 117. Similarly, such an intimacy score can be computed by analternative function based on a different combination of operatorswithout departing from the scope and spirit of the present disclosure.

Based on the criteria considered, the intimacy score can be presented ina number of ways. For example, when calculating the intimacy score basedon time proximity alone, the determine intimacy score use case 116 mayemploy an inverse exponential curve (f(duration)=1−e^(-duration),indicating that as the duration in which entities are in proximityincreases, the intimacy score rapidly approaches an upper bound.Similarly, when calculating the intimacy score based on physicalproximity independent of time, the determine intimacy score use case 116may employ an inverse logistic curve (or sigmoid curve)f(distance)=1-1/(1+e^-distance), indicating that the intimacy scorestarts close to an upper bound with close proximity, then decays andlevels off around 0. Furthermore, such calculations of intimacy scorescan be combined via multiplication to arrive at an intimacy score whichtakes into consideration both the physical proximity and the timeproximity factors (e.g., f(duration, distance)). Thus, in one embodimentthe intimacy score might be presented as a number between 0 and 1, andin other embodiments, the intimacy score may be represented as apercentage, a different scale (e.g., 0-100), or some other ranking orlabeling mechanism (e.g., A-Z).

Those skilled in the art will also recognize that the specific intimacyscoring function utilized to generate the intimacy score for the ITSsystem 10 disclosed herein may be changed or customized depending on thespecific application or setting to which the ITS system 10 is applied.Thus, the intimacy scoring function can be provided as a built-infunction, a selectable set of built-in functions, and/or be entirelycustomizable or replaceable as desired by the set selection preferencesuse case 117. Furthermore, in accordance with the visualization aspectof the present disclosure (discussed in greater detail below) theintimacy score generated by the determine intimacy score use case 116may be represented in the form of a graphical icon, indicia, or othervisual feature or effect. For example, the intimacy score could berepresented as the relative width or thickness of a line.

Referring again to FIG. 1, the retrieve proximity use case 106 interactswith the proximity analysis system 207 to receive the analysis of thevarious aspects of interactions between and relationships among theentities. The proximity data provided by the proximity analysis system207 includes analysis relating to the selected one or more entities fromthe select entity of interest use case 105, the relationships associatedthose selected entities, and the proximity data (including the physicalcomponent, the time component, and relevant intimacy scores) from theproximity analysis system 207 related to the interactions between theone or more entities of both the selected entity set and theidentified-as-related entity set. The proximity data received by thereceive proximity data use case 106 is used in the determine relevanceof relationship use case 107 (discussed below).

Items of Information

A retrieve items of information use case 109 optionally retrievesinformation from a variety of sources 441, 442, 443, 444 that assist theITS System 10 in analyzing the identified relationships between theselected entities. Such sources are generally databases that containinformation useful in identifying the entities and other relevantinformation useful in understanding the relationship between theentities. This information is useful in determining that a relationshipis relevant; the items of information relating to the entities can beforwarded to outside systems via the generate alerts use case 128(discussed below). The databases can include an entity database 441 thatcontains identifying data relating to the various entities underanalysis. For example, in the case of the entity being a person, theentity database 441 would include the person's name, date of birth,address, phone number, etc. In a medical setting, the entity database441 might also include information such as patient identificationnumber, medical conditions (e.g., diagnoses and symptoms), medicalhistory, and insurance information. The entity database 441 may alsoinclude information related to object entities such as equipmentidentification numbers, the use of the equipment, the status, age, andcondition of the equipment, and the location to which the equipment isassigned.

The retrieve items of information use case 109 may also interact with acontact database 442 that includes information such as known contacts,family or relationships of the entity in question. For example, withrespect to a prison setting, the contact database 442 can include knownaliases of a convicted prisoner, known partners who have been inassociation with the prisoner, known family members, and others who haveshared prison cells with the prisoner in the current or pastconvictions.

A setting database 443 includes data related to the setting orenvironment in which the ITS system 10 is operating. For example, in ahospital setting, the setting database 443 would include a listing ofthe staff and those employed at the hospital, such as doctors, nurses,housekeeping staff, maintenance, kitchen staff, hospital security, etc.,situations and alerts in the in the hospital (and related informationsuch as severity, location, whether they are active or passive), as wellas physical and/or structural information and data about the setting(e.g., size of the hospital, number of rooms, number of patients, etc.).

A condition database 444 includes information relevant to whateversetting the ITS system 10 is applied to. For example, in a medicalsetting, the condition database 444 may include forms of diseases,viruses, bacteria, and other types of maladies that can affect or infectentities within the medical setting. The condition database 444 may alsoinclude information such as the incubation period of the variousdiseases, the symptoms, groups that are at a heightened risk ofcontracting the disease, and how the disease is spread from one entityto another.

In addition to retrieving information from the various sources 441, 442,443, 444, the retrieve items of information use case 109 also interactswith the historical database 400 to retrieve position information storedin the historical database 400 (for example, by the gather entityinformation use case 104 or other position source) and any otherrelevant information. Those skilled in the art will recognize that theretrieve items of information use case 109 could interact with anycombination of sources of data in addition to those specificallydiscussed herein to obtain information relevant to the selected entitiesand/or relationships consistent with the present disclosure.

The information retrieved in the retrieve items of information use case109 can relate to the entities which were selected as being entities ofinterest via the select entity of interest use case 105 (i.e., theselected entity set), to entities of corresponding relationships (i.e.,the identified-as-related set) and/or to the relationships themselves.More generally, the items of information received can relate to theentities themselves such as the names or titles of the entities, thedescription, status, or condition of one, some, or all the entities, andprior history data of one, some, or all of the entities which wouldinclude information such as prior location (e.g., where each of theentities have been prior to their contact with the other entities), andwith whom or with what each of the entities have been in contact priorto contact with the other entities.

For example, in a hospital setting, the items of information can relateto health record information relating to a first patient 201 who isclassified as having a particular infectious disease stored in thecondition database 444 and is identified as being administered aparticular medication or treatment. Similarly, the item of informationcan also relate to a second patient 202 who is identified as having adifferent disease or condition. Similarly, the item of information cancontain identification information regarding visitors stored in thecontact database 442, including address and contact information which isoften collected upon passing through a security entrance of a hospital.Further, the item of information can relate to medical personnel storedin a personnel database 443.

In a prison setting, for example, the item of information received inthe retrieve items of information use case 109 can relate to which crimea particular prisoner 201 has been convicted of, the prisoner'ssentence, jail time remaining, which other prisoners 202 the prisoner201 is friendly with, which group or gang 203 the prisoner is associatedwith, and who are the other prisoners 202 or groups of prisoners 203 whohave had conflicts with the prisoner 201.

The item of information can also relate to an object 301 b such as apiece of equipment, and to which patient 201 b the object is assigned(see, for example, FIG. 6). In the example of FIG. 6, equipment 301 b,301 c, 302 c, 302 d is allocated to certain individual rooms 401 a, 401b, 401 c, 401 d or to certain wings of the hospital. Similarly, in theprison setting, the object can be a piece of mail or property belongingto one of the prisoners. Similarly, the item of information can relateto an object or a group of objects such as serial information oridentification information relating to specific pieces or classes ofobjects.

Furthermore, the item of information can relate to either a patient 201who's information is stored in the entity database 441 and who isassigned to a particular location 401, such as two patients 201, 202 whoare both assigned to share the same room 401. Similarly, the group ofpatients 203 can be classifications of patient groups 203, such asmothers who have just given birth, and both the patients individuallyand as a group, each mother 201 is assigned to a particular room 401within the maternity wing 403. Similarly, the item of information canalso apply to the prison setting, wherein either an inmate 201 or agroup of inmates 203 are assigned to a particular prison cell 401 or aprison block 403 (e.g., two or more inmates 203 are assigned to sharethe same cell 401 or inmates 203 are identified with, grouped, orseparated based on the severity of the crimes they committed).

Just as the item of information can relate to the entities involved inthe interaction, the item of information can also relate to thespecifics of the interaction itself, such as data which is used toidentify whether conditions for an event have been satisfied, or datawhich would determine the conditions or rules for which the interactionis tracked. In the medical setting, such information could includemedical data relating to how an infectious disease, virus, or bacteriaspreads from one person to another.

For example, referring to FIG. 7, if a patient's 201 a laboratory workupis found to contain an infectious disease which, according to the itemof information received, is transmitted through the transfer bodilyfluids 701 belonging to the patient 201 a, and the only contact thepatient has had is physical contact with a doctor 202 a who was wearinggloves 702 during the interaction, the item of information relating tothe conditions for which the disease would be transferred from thepatient 201 a to the doctor 202 a would help one examining theinteraction between the patient 201 a and the doctor 202 a to determinewhether, based on the conditions that existed at the time of thecontact, there is reason to suspect that the disease of the patient 201a has been spread to the doctor 202 a. In the scenario where the doctor202 a is wearing gloves 702, because the item of information wouldrequire the disease to enter into a bodily orifice of the doctor 202 ain order to spread the virus, and any contact between the doctor 202 aand the patient 201 a was non-bodily contact, an analysis of theinteraction could conclude that the doctor 202 a was not infected by thenon-bodily contact between the doctor 202 a and the patient 201 a.

However, if the item of information identifies the disease to beairborne, then the analysis of the doctor's 202 a interaction with thepatient 201 a would yield the conclusion that the doctor 202 a wasexposed to the airborne disease merely by being in proximity with thepatient 201 a, and thus one analyzing the interaction could concludethat the doctor 202 a could have been infected with the virus.Furthermore, based on the identification of a possible communication ofa virus from the patient 201 a to the doctor 202 a, one analyzing theproximity of the two entities 201 a, 202 a could also conclude thatthere is a likelihood that any one or more subsequent patients,visitors, and hospital staff that the doctor 202 a has come intoproximity with could have also been exposed to the airborne virusinitially spread to the doctor 202 a by the patient 201 a. Such anexample also applies to a scenario where a doctor that has been exposedto an airborne virus can spread that virus to any of the locations thedoctor practices in. Further, since the virus is airborne, it is able totravel through the ventilation system of the hospital, and thus, anyindividuals within the hospital who are in any one of the locations inwhich the ventilation system reaches could also be infected by the samevirus initially transmitted by the doctor.

Determining Relevancy

Returning to the ITS System 10 of FIG. 1, a determine relevance ofrelationship use case 107 utilizes the proximity data received in theretrieve proximity data use case 106 and/or information received via thereceive items of information use case 109 to determine the effect or therelevancy of the proximity or relationship between the two entities. Therelevancy of the relationship is determined based in part on theproximity and intimacy score data retrieved from the proximity analysissystem 207 by the retrieve proximity data use case 106 with respect topreferences configured into the ITS system 10 in the set selectionpreferences use case 117. Thus, the proximity and intimacy score datamay be analyzed to determine whether an event meets a pre-definedcondition, whether proximity or intimacy score data meets or exceeds apre-defined threshold, or generally what effect the relationship inquestion has had or will have on the ITS system 10 (e.g., other entitieslocations or relationships). In addition, the determine relevance ofrelationship use case 107 may provide information relative to the actualor potential current or future effect or impact of the particularrelationship on other entities or relationships in or around the ITSsystem 10. For example, the determine relevance of relationship use case107 may determine that a relationship (e.g., where one of the entitieshas an infectious disease), has a high likelihood of resulting in aspread of that disease to other people in the hospital. That is, basedon the level of proximity and intimacy score of a relationship betweentwo entities, it is likely that the second entity contracted the diseasefrom the first entity. The determine relevance of relationship use case107 could determine that subsequent relationships that the second entitydevelops could also result in the transmission of the disease to otherentities. As described and exemplified throughout the presentdisclosure, including the description with respect to FIG. 17 above, thedetermine relevance of relationship use case 107 may determine that aparticular relationship is relevant (or not) based on a variety offactors, thereby allowing the relationship relevancy system 5 togenerally determine or predict the spread of infectious diseases orother conditions of interest to other areas of the hospital or to otherentities associated with the hospital.

In one embodiment, if the determine relevance of relationship use case107 determines that a relationship is relevant (e.g., reaches a certainthreshold), the generate alerts use case 128 interacts with an alertsystem 208 to issue a notification that a relationship of particularnature exists. The notification from the alert system includes, forexample, sending messages to select entities or the user/operator 130,instructing entities to take a particular course of action, activatingsystems that are connected to the ITS system 10 (e.g., to combat thesituation), an alarm or other broadcast of information system-wide(e.g., to warn of a infectious disease outbreak), or forcing a change inthe entity selection criteria.

In another example, in a prison setting, the set selection preferencesuse case 117 receives criteria that certain prisoners are supposed to bein their prison cells at a certain time. Prisoners are the entitiesselected to be in the selected entity set. Similarly, the prison cellsassigned to each prisoner are selected to be in theidentified-as-related entity set. The proximity analysis system 207 thusdetermines whether each entity is found in their prison cell at thescheduled time; this proximity information is retrieved by the retrieveproximity data use case 106. The determine relevance of relationship usecase 107, based to the rules set by the set selection preferences usecase 117, determines that a relationship between a prisoner and hisprison cell is relevant when that prisoner is not found to be inproximity with his assigned prison cell at the programmed time. Based onthe absence of the prisoner from his assigned prison cell, the determinerelevance of relationship use case 107 determines that there has been abreach in the prison security system. In such a circumstance, the alertsystem 208 signals an alarm via the generate alerts use case 128 andsends an alert to prison security staff and local authorities that thecertain prisoner is not where he should be. The retrieve items ofinformation use case 109 retrieves from the various databases items ofinformation such as the prisoner's picture, his fingerprints, a copy ofhis case file including whether his conviction was for a violent crime,past associations, etc. Some or all of these items could be broadcast torelevant parties via the alert system 208. Also, upon detecting thepotential breakout, the alert system 208 communicates with the securitysystem (not shown) to initiate a lockdown of all entrances and exitsfrom the prison, and to raise the security level in the prison to ahigher setting. Additionally, the visualize proximity between entitiesuse case 112 could be used to display on a visual map of the prisongrounds where (if present) the prisoner is located so that he can berecaptured.

Similarly, the determine relevance of relationship use case 107 may alsoproject behavior or develop a profile of entities based in part ondetermined relationships of the entities, as well as predict thedeviation from that behavior or profile. In one embodiment, thedetermine relevance of relationship use case 107, in conjunction withthe information received from the one or more of the information sources400, 441, 442, 443, 444 determine behavior patterns or profiles ofentities in the system by accumulating knowledge of typical activitiesand movement patterns (e.g., daily routines, positions, time schedules,movement under particular conditions) for hospital staff includingdoctors and nurses or certain pieces of equipment (e.g., oxygen tanks,stretchers, etc.). Such association of activity with particular entitiesresults in a profile for such entities. Thus, the determine relevance ofrelationship use case 107 or the relationship relevancy system 5 as awhole has the ability to predict deviations from the typical behavior orprofile based on, for example, recently detected movement orrelationship development. For example, if the relationship relevancysystem 5 has access to a profile regarding a group of nurses, and thedetermine relevance of relationship use case 107 notes that one of thenurses traverses a particular hallway that none of the nurses in thegroup typically uses, the determine relevance of relationship use case107 may determine that the nurse has a high probability of (a) not beingpermitted in that area of the hospital; and (b) visiting an off-limits,secured room at the end of the hallway. As such, the determine relevanceof relationship use case 107 could make such determination and initiateappropriate action or alerts prior to the nurse ever reaching thesecured room or leaving the hallway. Those skilled in the art willrecognize that such profiling and behavior prediction and deviationfeatures could be applied to a number of different settings, including,for example, law enforcement efforts (e.g., FBI criminal profiling).

Visualization of Relationships

A visualize proximity use case 112 interacts with a relationalvisualization system 205 to obtain a graphical representation of therelevant entities and their relationships, proximities and associatedintimacy scores on a display or map corresponding to the physicalenvironment or the setting in which the ITS system 10 is operating or towhich it is applicable.

FIG. 12 is a use case diagram of the relational visualization system205. The relational visualization system 205 includes a create virtualmap use case 118 that accesses a mapping database(s) 126 to generate avirtual map of the physical environment or setting (e.g., hospital,office building, prison, etc.) to which the ITS system 10 is applicable.The virtual map is created using any combination of mapping softwaregenerally known in the art.

An input entities use case 119 interfaces with the ITS System 10 toinput the entities being monitored and tracked by the ITS system 10 intothe virtual map to create a virtual relationship display. The entitiesare displayed on the virtual map as icons, graphical symbols or otherindicia. In addition, icons, graphical symbols or other indicia denotingitems of information relevant to or associated with one or more of theentities may be included in the virtual relationship display. Forexample, the virtual relationship display may graphically distinguishbetween an entity being an individual and an entity that is an object,or between an entity that is a patient and an entity that is a doctor.

A receive proximity data use case 121 interfaces with the ITS system 10to retrieve proximity data (e.g., level of proximity data, intimacyscore data) generated by the proximity analysis system 207.Additionally, a display relationship use case 122 displays therelationships between entities on the virtual relationship display,permitting a visual representation of the relationships present in thesystem, between which entities, and at which positions or location inthe system or map. In one embodiment, the entities displayed compriseeach of the entities in the selected entity set according to the setselection preferences use case 117, and the entities in theidentified-as-related entity set which are identified in the identifyrelationships use case 113 as being related to the respective entitiesin the selected entity set. These settings can be modified by aconfigure display use case 123 (discussed below) to include a broaderset of entities to be included in either set, or a narrower set. Thedisplay relationship use case 122 interfaces with a display 132 forpresentation to the user or operator 130.

The relationships may be represented on the virtual relationship displayby displaying indicia indicating the relationship between the entities.The indicia can be a line connecting the entities, or it can be someother marker or identifier showing the user that the selected entitiesare somehow related. The indicia representing the relationship betweenany given set of entities may also be used to visually indicate theproximity between those entities and optionally may associate theirintimacy score. In an embodiment where the intimacy score is applied tothe indicia, a larger score can represent a stronger connection, and alower score can represent a weaker connection. Such intimacy scores maybe monitored and updated as relationships between the entities changesand is monitored in real-time. However, as discussed above, the intimacyscore is only one of the different measurements of proximity that cansimilarly be represented by the indicia.

For example, the indicia representing the relationships can reflect aninfection or virus being monitored. That is, if the interactions formingthe relationship between the entities (displayed as indicia) comprisethe types of interactions that would be conducive for the disease orvirus to be transmitted from one person to another, then that increasedrisk can be reflected by modifying the indicia to represent theincreased risk. If, for example, the indicia are represented by a lineconnecting two entities, an increased risk of infection could berepresented by a thick line as opposed to a thin line. Conversely, arelationship having a lower risk of infection could be represented by athin line or no line.

Similarly, the display relationship use case 122 may present therelationships as a social network visualization graph 720 (see FIG. 13)or similar display. In one embodiment, the display may include theentities, relationships and/or their corresponding, relative locations,but may exclude the virtual map of the area being tracked. The graph maycontain entities and their relationships (including relationships withregard to locations in the ITS System 10), or it may contain displays ofother criteria such as class, condition, date, or time (e.g., asdescribed in the metaclass diagram of FIG. 15). The configure displayuse case 123 (discussed below) can determine what are the items or theelements that populate the graph.

FIG. 13 shows an example of a social network visualization graph 720 aspart of a virtual relationship display 700, in which the displayrelationship use case 122 can display the relationships between selectedentities and those entities identified-as-related to the selectedentities. In the example of FIG. 13, nodes represent the entities beinganalyzed, and the indicia (e.g., lines) between nodes represent therelationship between entities and describe the proximity between theentities. In the example of FIG. 13, line thickness represents the levelof the proximity and/or the intimacy score with respect to anyparticular relationship. However, as discussed above, other indicia canbe used. Relationships having a higher intimacy score or level ofproximity are represented with a thicker line, while relationships witha lower intimacy score or level of proximity are represented by athinner line. The social network visualization graph 340 can be viewedin real time or based on historical information. In one embodiment, whenviewed in real time, as the intimacy score or proximity between theentities strengthen or weaken, the indicia on the graph representing therelationship, proximity and/or intimacy score changes in a correspondingmanner. It should also be understood that the level of proximity and/orintimacy score represented on the relationship visualization display maybe presented in any one or combination of formats and may be relative tothe other levels of proximity/intimacy score on the display. Forexample, the thickness of the lines representing the variousrelationships in FIG. 13 may be relative to the other relationship linesin the social network visualization graph 720. In another embodiment,the relationship visualization display 700 may include more preciseindications of the actual or relative intimacy score of any givenrelationship.

In FIG. 13, one instance of proximity or intimacy score between entitiesis represented by line 721 which represents a relationship between twonodes, Steve Lustbader 731 and Rob Plovnick 732. The line 721 indicatesthat Steve Lustbader 731 and Rob Plovnick 732 are or have been inproximity to each other, and thus have a relationship. The relativethickness of the line 721 indicates that there is a relatively highlevel of proximity or intimacy score between these two entities. In amedical setting (e.g., the ITS System 10 is configured to track adisease) the thickness of line 721 may indicate that if one of theseindividuals were infected with a particular disease, the otherindividual would likely have been exposed and would be at a high risk oftransmission.

The virtual relationship display 700 of FIG. 13 also allows a user tocompare relationships between entities being tracked. For example, theline 722 connecting the nodes Fred Wells 733 and Niroop Gonchikar 734 isthicker than the line 723 connecting Daniel Kokotov 735 and PatrickCampbell 736, indicating a higher intimacy score and therefore higherrisk of exposure/transmission.

The virtual relationship display 700 of FIG. 13 also includes examplesof portions of the user interface configured in the configure displayuse case 123 of FIG. 12. The user interface allows a user monitoring theinteractions between the entities tracked in the ITS System 10 tocustomize the virtual relationship display 700, as described above. Asshown in the example of FIG. 13, a set of panels 740 on the virtualrelationship display 700 presents various options that a userinteracting with the configure display use case 123 select. Such optionsinclude, for example, date range 741, person categories 742, personselector 743, location categories 744, organisms 745, interactionthresholds 746, and centrality measures 747. Those skilled in the artwill recognize that the configuration panels may be presented on thesame or a separate display as the social network graph, virtualrelationship display 360 or other relationship map.

In addition to displaying relationships between entities, the displayrelationship use case 122 may also present relationships betweenentities by representing those relationships as indicia being associatedwith a particular location or area on the virtual relationship displaywhere the interactions forming those relationships took place. Thus,interactions between entities where such interactions (i.e.,proximities) take place in different locations may be accounted for.Similarly, where there is a proximity between more than one set ofentities (e.g., a first set of entities and a second set of entities),each set having a relationship and a proximity, the cumulative effect ofthe proximities between the entity sets on the area in which theproximity occurred can be represented by indicia associated with thatparticular area or location on a virtual relationship display. Forexample, if there are multiple relationships in an infectious diseaseoutbreak where the proximity between a patient having an infectiousvirus and another person occurred in a particular room or area of thehospital, that room could be marked on the virtual relationship display(e.g., by color, by a number indication of level, or by other indicia)to indicate that the particular room or area was to be considered an“infected” room or a “hot zone”. Similarly, based on the informationabout the virus being considered, a radius around the “infected” roommight also be drawn to indicate that there is a higher likelihood ofinfection by being in those areas.

FIG. 14 is an example of a virtual relationship display 700 thatincludes an example of a physical region visualization graph 760, inwhich the display relationship use case 122 presents the proximitybetween entities and/or the intimacy scores with respect to locationsdisplayed on the virtual relationship display in which the proximitybetween the entities took place. Although the example of FIG. 14 depictsthe region as a floor plan of a particular area of a building, it shouldbe understood that the virtual relationship display may presentdifferent floor plans representing various areas within a building, andmay also present a three-dimensional representation of a building, amongother configurations. In FIG. 14, the locations shown on the display areshown as rooms, and the indicia describing the proximity between theentities are colorations of those rooms.

For example, in a hospital setting where one of the entities wasinfected with the Ebola virus, various rooms are displayed in thephysical region visualization graph 330. Each room is associated with anintimacy score or proximity level of those instances of contact thatoccurred in each of the rooms. While in the example of FIG. 14, coloringor shading is used to represent the intimacy score or proximity levelsrelating to each room, other embodiments may display other indicia ormarkings to describe the proximity and/or intimacy scores (e.g., numbersindicating the intimacy score of each room or region, or lettersindicating the level of proximity, etc.) Similarly, the set selectionpreferences use case 117 may determine whether the proximity leveland/or intimacy score was shown, or whether the visualization isconfigured to simply show the number of instances of contact between therelated entities.

In the example of FIG. 14, if the physical region visualization graph760 is configured to represent the number of instances of contact, room762 is colored blue, indicating that one or more instances of contactbetween a selected entity who has tested positive for the virus andentities identified-as-related to the selected entity took place. Room764 is colored red, indicating that a large number of instances ofcontact took place there. Where no instances of contact between a personinfected with the Ebola virus and another entity took place, the room iscolored green, as is seen in room 766. Other rooms on the physicalregion visualization graph 760 may not be colored at all, indicatingthat there was not contact of any sort in those rooms, that the infectedperson was not in those rooms, or that no entity entered those rooms atall.

Similarly, the coloring of the rooms 762, 764, 766 in FIG. 14 canrepresent intimacy scores or proximity levels corresponding to therelationships that took place in a particular location. In thisembodiment, the intimacy scores of each relationship is combined to forma cumulative intimacy score which can be calculated with regard to eachroom, and the level of the cumulative intimacy score of each room can berepresented by a color. Thus, in the example of FIG. 14, room 762 iscolored blue to indicate an elevated cumulative intimacy score withregard to that room. The red coloring of Room 764 represents a very highcumulative intimacy score with regard to that room, while the greencoloring of 766 represents a room having a low intimacy score.

Similar to the social network graph 720 in FIG. 13, the physical regionvisualization graph 760 can be viewed in real time or in view ofhistorical information. When viewed in real time, as the intimacy scorewith regard to each room strengthens or weakens, the color attributed tothat room changes accordingly. In addition, the virtual relationshipdisplay 700 of FIG. 14 includes examples of interactive portions of theuser interface configured via the configure display use case 123. Suchuser configuration options include the date range 780, the percent range782, organisms 784, and person type selection 786. Other configurationoptions may be presented, as described above.

Additionally, other features can be incorporated into the virtualrelationship display 700 based on the settings set in the set selectionpreferences use case 117. One such feature is a risk graph 790, which inthe medical setting displays those entities most at risk of beingexposed to or acquiring an infection from a region or set of regions (asopposed to from another entity). The risk graph 790 can be formatted asa bar graph, with each bar corresponding to an at risk entity, and thesize of the bar proportional to the level of risk as determined by thetime spent in potentially infected locations (taking into account socialnetwork effects). In the example of FIG. 14, entities not already knownto have the potential infection are included in the risk graph 790. InFIG. 14, the bar referring to “Mike Hunter” 792 is at high relative riskof exposure/transmission, whereas “Steve Theobald” and “Keith Shepherd”are at low relative risk.

The risk graph 790 operates in two modes: global, and local. In globalmode, it shows the risk of exposure to or acquiring an infection fromthe regions in the facility. In local mode, based on selecting a regionor set of regions, it would show the risk of exposure to andtransmission of an infection only in that region(s).

Another feature that can be incorporated into the visualization based onthe settings set in the set selection preferences use case 117 is aninfection contribution gauge 796. The infection contribution gauge 796displays which entities are contributing to the potential infectionlevel of particular regions. The infection contribution gauge 796 is abar that can be broken down into colored bands, for example, the greencolor band 798 for Patrick Campbell. Each band corresponds to an entitycontributing to the potential infection level, with the size of the bandrepresenting the fraction of the total potential infection level whichthat entity is contributing. The contribution for each entity is basedon proximity data and/or intimacy score data. Similar to the risk graph790, the potential infection contribution gauge 796 operates in globalmode and local mode. In global mode, it would show contributions to theoverall potential infection level of the facility. In local mode, basedon selecting a region or set of regions, it would show contributions tothe potential infection level of that specific region(s).

The virtual relationship display 700, its entities and theirrelationships may be displayed by the display relationship use case 122on any display device 227 via the visualize proximity use case 112 ofFIG. 1. Such display devices are generally known in the art, andomission of a detailed discussion thereof herein should be notconsidered limiting, but should be understood to include, for example, acomputer screen or monitor in connection with the ITS system 10.

The configure display use case 123 allows a user of the ITS system 10 tointeract with the virtual map via a mouse, keyboard, touch-screeninterface or any other means generally known in the art to inputadditional information to the system. A user 130 may also selectentities or aspects of the environment displayed on the virtualrelationship display 700 for further investigation or alternate display,or otherwise manipulate and interact with the virtual relationshipdisplay 700 via the configure display use case 123. In addition, theconfigure display use case 123, for example, allows for the panning andzooming of a graph or display on the display 227, re-centering thelayout of the display around entities selected, and re-positioning ofthe entities on the display by the user to facilitate analysis.Similarly, as described above, the configure display use case 123 allowsa user to change the parameters as discussed above in the set selectionpreferences use case 117 to display alternate display outputs based onthe new configuration settings; this could include altering one of theconfiguration setting as discussed in the metaclass diagram of FIG. 15to include a different set of entities in the display output. Theconfigure display use case 123 can allow for the manipulation ofindicia, sizes, and colors of entities in the ITS system 10.

In one embodiment, the user 130 of the relationship relevancy system 5makes manual determinations about one or more aspects of the informationgenerated to obtain relationship and/or relevancy information. Forexample, the user 130 (e.g., a hospital administrator) may manuallyidentify entities of interest, determine positions of those entitiesand/or identify relationships of those entities. Such manualdeterminations may be made via observations or experience of the user130. The user 130 may also draw manual conclusions regarding the levelof proximity of the entities in a relationship and provide or obtainitems of information about those entities, including, for example, humanknowledge or a traditional (e.g., paper) filing system 446 (see FIG.17). The user 130 may also draw manual conclusions about the relevancyof the relationships based on the proximity data and items ofinformation obtained.

The network 900 is used to facilitate communication between the variousdevices, modules and components of the relationship relevancy system 5.The network 900 may be any network or system generally known in the art,including the Internet, an intranet, a local area network (LAN), a widearea network (WAN), a metropolitan area network (MAN), a directconnection or series of connections, a cable television infrastructure,a cellular telephone network or any other network, transmission channelor medium capable of facilitating communication between the devices,modules and other components of the relationship relevancy system. Thenetwork may be wired, wireless or a combination thereof. Wiredconnections may be implemented using Ethernet, Universal Serial Bus(USB), RJ-11 or any other wired connection generally known in the art.Wireless connections may be implemented using wifi, wimax, bluetooth,infrared, cellular networks, satellite or any other wireless connectionmethodology generally known in the art. The network maybe implemented ina client-server, token-ring, peer-to-peer manner or any other networktopology known in the art. Additionally, several networks may work aloneor in communication with each other to facilitate communication in thenetwork 900. Various networking standards may be employed for allowingUE 101 to communicate with the network 900, such as EDGE, 3G and/or802.11.

FIG. 18 is a block diagram illustrating a computer system 1000 forrealization of a computer-implemented apparatus that may form all or aportion of one or more implementation(s) or embodiment(s) of the presentdisclosure. The computer system 1000 includes a computer 1060, akeyboard 1042, a mouse 1044, and a display device (e.g., computermonitor) 227 (see also FIGS. 1, 12 and 17) through which the computer1060 may receive input/provide output, for example to a user, operatoror another computer or system (not shown). Input/output devices such asthe display device 1040, keyboard 1042, the mouse 1044, and other meansor mechanisms (e.g., touch screen interface) through which interactionwith the computer system 1000 may occur are generally known in the art,and a detailed discussion thereof is omitted here for convenience onlyand should not be considered limiting. The computer 1060 includes anetwork port 1020 for connecting the computer to an internal or externalnetwork, such as, for example the network 900. The computer 1060 isconnected to a storage device 1050 that includes program instructions1052 for software application(s) that provides the logical functions ofthe computer-implemented apparatus and/or method(s) of the presentdisclosure. The storage device 1050 also contains a database 1054 forstoring data.

Those skilled in the art will recognize that the program instructions1052 for software applications implementing all or a portion of one ormore embodiment(s) of the present disclosure may be written in aprogramming language such as Java or C++, and that the database 1054 maybe implemented with a database package such as Microsoft Access™ or adatabase management system (DBMS) such as Microsoft SQL Server™,Microsoft SQL Server CE™, IBM DB2™, mySQL or postgreSQL.

FIG. 19 is a block diagram illustrating a computer architecture orsystem 1000 through which the embodiments of the relationship relevancysystem 5, including the interaction and tracking surveillance system 10,the position determination system 204, the proximity analysis system 207and/or the relational visualization system 205 may be implemented. Asystem bus 1002 transports data amongst the Central Processing Unit(CPU) 1004, RAM 1006, the Basic Input Output System (BIOS) 1008 andother components. The CPU 1004 may include a cache memory component1024. The computer system 1000 may include one or more external storageports 1017 for accessing a hard disk drive (HDD), optical storage drive(e.g., CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, DVD-RW), flash memory, tape device, or otherstorage device (not shown). The relevant storage device(s) are connectedthrough the external storage port 1017 which is connected to the systembus 1002 via a disk controller 1022. A keyboard and/or pointing device(e.g., mouse, touch pad) (see FIG. 18) can be connected to thekeyboard/mouse port(s) 1012, and other I/O devices could be connected toadditional I/O port(s) 1013, which are connected to the system bus 1002through the I/O controller 1010. Additional ports or devices, such asserial ports, parallel ports, firewire adapters, or biometric devices(not shown), may be utilized through the I/O controller 1010. A displaydevice 227 (see FIGS. 1, 12, 17 and 18) can be connected to a displaydevice port 1014 which is connected to the system bus 1002 through thevideo controller 1015. A network device (not shown), including but notlimited to an Ethernet device or other device having networkingcapability, can be connected to a network port 1020 which is connectedthrough the network controller 1016 to the system bus 1002. The computersystem 1000 may be wirelessly connected to a network device that isconfigured for wireless operation (not shown), including but not limitedto wireless routers, using an antenna 1028 connected to a wirelesscontroller 1026 connected to the system bus 1002, where the antennatransmits/receives signals to/from the network device. The computersystem 1000 may include one or more USB ports 1023. A USB device (notshown), including but not limited to a printer, scanner, keyboard,mouse, digital camera, storage device, PDA, cellular phone, biometricdevice, webcam, and I/O adapters can be connected to the USB port 1023which is connected to the system bus 1002 through the USB controller1011. Other devices, such as cellular phones, PDAs, and other portabledevices may also be connected wirelessly via a wireless I/O antenna 1032that is connected to a wireless I/O controller 1030. Examples ofwireless I/O technologies include, but are not limited to, Bluetooth,Infrared (IR), and Radio-Frequency (RF). Audio devices, such asmicrophones, speakers, or headphones may be connected to a sound port1038 that is connected to a sound controller 1034 that is connected tothe system bus 1002. Expansion slots 1018 can include Industry StandardArchitecture (ISA) slots, Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI)expansion slots, PCI Express expansion slots, Accelerated Graphics Port(AGP) slots or any other slot generally known in the art to allowadditional cards to be placed into the computer system 1000. These slotscan be used to connect network cards, video cards, sound cards, modemsand any other peripheral devices generally used with a computer. Thecomputer system 1000 also includes a source of power (not shown),including but not limited to a power supply connected to an externalsource of power, and/or an internal or external battery. These devicesare generally well-know to those skilled in the art, and a detaileddiscussion thereof is omitted here for convenience only and should notbe considered limiting.

The embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented with anycombination of hardware and software. If implemented as acomputer-implemented apparatus, the embodiments of the presentdisclosure are implemented using means for performing all of the stepsand functions described above.

The embodiments of the present disclosure can be included in an articleof manufacture (e.g., one or more computer program products) having, forinstance, computer useable media. The media has embodied therein, forinstance, computer readable program code means for providing andfacilitating the mechanisms of the embodiments of the presentdisclosure. The article of manufacture can be included as part of acomputer system or sold separately.

Although the description above contains many specific examples, theseshould not be construed as limiting the scope of the embodiments of thepresent disclosure but as merely providing illustrations of some of thepresently preferred embodiments of this disclosure. Thus, the scope ofthe embodiments of the disclosure should be determined by the appendedclaims and their legal equivalents, rather than by the examples given.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes could bemade to the embodiments described above without departing from the broadinventive concept thereof. It is understood, therefore, that thisdisclosure is not limited to the particular embodiments disclosed, butit is intended to cover modifications within the spirit and scope of theembodiments of the present disclosure.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of determining an effect of aninteraction between a first entity and a second entity, the methodcomprising: identifying a first instance of contact between the firstentity and the second entity; determining a first location of the firstentity at the first instance of contact; determining a second locationof the second entity at the first instance of contact; assigning a firstintimacy score to the first instance of contact based on the determinedlocations of the first and second entities; identifying a secondinstance of contact between a third entity and a fourth entity;determining the effect of the first instance of contact on at least oneof the third entity and the fourth entity based at least in part on ananalysis of the first intimacy score and the second instance of contact;and assigning a second intimacy score to the second instance of contact,wherein the determining the effect of the first instance of contactincludes analyzing the second intimacy score.
 2. A method of determiningan effect of an interaction between a first entity and a second entity,the method comprising: identifying a first instance of contact betweenthe first entity and the second entity; determining a first location ofthe first entity at the first instance of contact; determining a secondlocation of the second entity at the first instance of contact;assigning a first intimacy score to the first instance of contact basedon the determined locations of the first and second entities;identifying a second instance of contact between a third entity and afourth entity; and determining the effect of the first instance ofcontact on at least one of the third entity and the fourth entity basedat least in part on an analysis of the first intimacy score and thesecond instance of contact; wherein the first intimacy score is based ona proximity between the first entity and the second entity at theinstance of contact and the duration of time that the first entity andthe second entity maintain the proximity; and wherein the first intimacyscore is further based on the duration of time elapsed between the firstinstance of contact and the second instance of contact.
 3. A method ofdetermining an effect of an interaction between a first entity and asecond entity, the method comprising: identifying a first instance ofcontact between the first entity and the second entity; determining afirst location of the first entity at the first instance of contact;determining a second location of the second entity at the first instanceof contact; assigning a first intimacy score to the first instance ofcontact based on the determined locations of the first and secondentities; identifying a second instance of contact between a thirdentity and a fourth entity; determining the effect of the first instanceof contact on at least one of the third entity and the fourth entitybased at least in part on an analysis of the first intimacy score andthe second instance of contact; and assigning a cumulative intimacyscore with respect to the first and second entities, the cumulativeintimacy score being based on the first intimacy score and subsequentintimacy scores with respect to subsequent instances of contact betweenthe first and second entities.
 4. The method of claim 3, furthercomprising: displaying one or more indicia representing the cumulativeintimacy score, the indicia indicating a relationship between said firstand second entities; and modifying an attribute of the indicia inaccordance with changes in the cumulative intimacy score.